Its all I can really afford for now. I am almost 50 and my wakeboarding years are getting less and less. I dont want to wait to afford a $15k boat as I want on this year. Tired of taking advantage of my friend who has $70k boat. I pay him gas $$ every time but dont feel right. This way I can go out when I want to.

Are you serious?
For $5000 you could pick up a decent Bayliner, probably already with a tower, that would suit your needs much better. maybe even find a older Supra, Nautique, or Centurion.
Unless your really into fishing, that boat won't do much for you for wakeboarding.

UMMMM, You can find a much better boat than that for wakeboarding for the same money. Unless of course you want to be a bass fisherman who wakeboards. You will be able to get pulled behind it, but will the wake ever be something worthwhile, i doubt it. The hull is designed to do the polar opposite of what a wake hull is designed to do and you won't be able to load enough weight in with that motor. What i would look at is the 82-89 SN 2001, 85-up sunsport., and 89-01 sunsetter. From your link it looks like you get that you would have to modify to get a wakeboarding boat out of just about anything you buy. With the ones i suggested, you will need to do less. I was able to get a 92 supra for 7k. you will be able to find one for less than that. If there are towing/lake restrictions, the sn2001 is 19ft.

With anything i pointed out, a fly high, sacks, and possibly a prop will at least get you started and with a lot less hassle than trying to convert a bass boat.

Dont go that route unless you enjoy fishing.... not sure your location but there are plenty of better options. If you want something newer then listed below look to get an I/O. Plenty of I/O options...

Mastercrafts after something like 1983 or 1984 don't have wood stringers either. The prostars aren't the best wakes out there but they can do very well if you weight them. I rode a prostar 190 for ... 7 years.

lets all make him feel bad for not wanting to add debt. Buy that bad boy and enjoy. Im glad I have an i/o. proves I am not a snob.

I think you are missing the point. That is a fishing boat. It is an outboard not an I/O. There are plenty of I/O's that would make better wakeboard boats for that price. I have nothing against an I/O. BTW, I don't see how owning an I/O proves you are not a snob.

K R This has nothing to do with reliability, etc. This boat will NOT be even a remotely good wakeboard boat. You'll be luck to keep it floating if you put weight in it. The hull is way too small, it doesn't draft enough to desplace water to create a wake and if you try weighting it, the stern will end up under water and you'll sink the boat- seriously.

With regard to Master Craft reliability, I think you'll find that for the most part, MC motors are very reliable. You can find a lot of other options that will work better than this. Now- if you want to slalom ski- this will be a great boat.

Take everyone's advice here and look elsewhere if you're wanting to wakeboard. this is not going to cut it at all.

Mastercraft uses the same motors as half the other boat builders out there. You only get a few choices, Merc, Indmar, PCM, etc. The one in my prostar was the original from 1989 and I never had a problem with it. Seriously, in 7 years of ownership, never had a problem with the motor. Transmission sprung a leak that turned out to be a $5 part and about 20 minutes to fix.

My friend had a Mastercraft and the motor was a money pit.
I need a reliable motor.

All the boats you'll be looking at in your budget will be 351w Ford engines. Probably a couple 454 boats too, like Supras or Barefoot Nautiques (basically a big block SN2001 with a slightly deeper V). Small block Ford is a very simple and reliable engine. I've seen plenty in cars with well over 200k miles and owned one that I sold at 302k miles that still ran well. SBF design is almost identical to a SBC so far as oiling, rotating assembly, etc. 454 is a good engine but inferior to big block Fords in several ways that are mostly irrelevant at the power levels of most ski/wake boats. So yeah, don't worry about what engine is in the boat, they're all more or less the same.

My friend had a Mastercraft and the motor was a money pit.
I need a reliable motor.

I've personally owned a Johnson 40 hp outboard that was a money pit too. Does that make all Johnsons & Mastercrafts money pits?

You can certainly board behind a fishing boat. But their not made for it. They don't kick up a descent wake. Aren't geared to be towing at 20 mph. Aren't going to be comfortable for you or your passengers to sit facing your riders, etc.

So let us know where your located & what your budget is. How far are you willing to travel? Do you own a truck? My guess is you will get plenty of better suggestions for a "wakeboard boat".